Description of the attraction
The Holy Spirit nunnery, or the Monastery in honor of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, was built in the XIV century at the foot of the Dukhovaya mountain - one of the most picturesque areas of Vitebsk, located on a hill at the confluence of the Vitba and the Dvina.
Legend attributes the construction of the Orthodox Holy Spiritual Church to the Vitebsk prince Olgerd, and the foundation of the monastery at the church - to his second wife - Ulyana Tverskaya, or the monastery was founded by the first wife of Olgerd Maria Vitebskaya, and Ulyana carried out his guardianship. In any case, we owe the foundation of the Holy Spirit Convent in Vitebsk to this noble and pious family.
After the adoption of the Union of Brest, all Orthodox churches and monasteries in Vitebsk were closed. On January 18, 1697, within the walls of the former Holy Spirit Orthodox monastery, a female Basilian monastery was founded on the initiative of Prince Fyodor Lukomsky. For the Basilian monastery, stone residential buildings, outbuildings and a boarding house for girls were built.
After the third partition of the Commonwealth, when Vitebsk was included in the Russian Empire, in 1839 the Holy Spirits monastery was transferred to the Orthodox Church, but due to the small number of the Orthodox population it had to be abolished in 1855. The monastery buildings were transferred to the city prison.
In 1872, after the reconstruction carried out in the building of the monastery, the Polotsk diocesan school for women was moved to Vitebsk. In Soviet times, the school was closed, the monastery was abolished, the church was first closed, and in the early 1960s it was destroyed.
The revival of the monastery today began with the decision of the Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church on May 3, 2001, when the cells, the refectory and the house church were returned to the monastery. During 2009-2012, new buildings and the Church of the Holy Spirit were built, consecrated on November 24, 2012.
